


You, Me, and the Vending Machine

by GrotesqueEnchantment



Series: You, Me, and the Lie Between Us [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Based off the SNL skit, F/M, Fluff, Matt really likes Rey, Rey's Undercover, Tumblr Prompt, Undercover!Rey, awkward babies are awkward, vending machines can kill you and Kylo Ren doesn't understand why you can't reach into one
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-03-13
Packaged: 2018-05-26 13:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6241687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrotesqueEnchantment/pseuds/GrotesqueEnchantment
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren, the master of the Knights of Ren, her sworn enemy, with his hand caught in a vending machine. </p><p>Based off the prompt: "tried to get the candy bar that didn’t drop out of the vending machine and now my hand is stuck can u help me out"</p>
            </blockquote>





	You, Me, and the Vending Machine

 

It was a simple mission when she thought hard about it. She was to infiltrate the _Finalizer_ and gain as much intel as possible on the ship and those commanding it. She was to work as a technician until the time had come when she would leave the ship with Poe and report back to the Resistance base.

What wasn’t simple was the work they had her do. It was almost like _none_ of the goddamn workers knew what they were doing so she was always called to fix the problems. It was annoying in the beginning, she was just as new as anyone else but she always had double the work piled onto her. As time went on though, now three weeks into her mission, the extra work became a sort of breeze.

She was on her way to her last job of the day when she spotted the poor man kneeling in front of a vending machine. As she grew closer, she could see that he was hitting the machine ever so frequently with one hand and pulling his body away simultaneously. She probably should’ve just kept walking, should’ve went to her final job and just retired for the night after. But she is a creature of compassion and seeing this poor sop like that called to her.

She walks up slowly next to the vending machine before resting against it and watching the man work a little more. He had blonde curly hair that had clearly never seen a brush in its life and big glasses that clearly weren’t meant for his face. It was when he looked up that Rey recognized him immediately.

It was Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren, the master of the Knights of Ren, her sworn enemy, with his hand caught in a vending machine. She didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at her luck. It was too late to walk away now, he knew that she was there. It was only up to fate to see if he would recognize her or not.

He stares at her for a moment, watching her and waiting for her to say something. His cheeks are tinted slightly red and she wasn’t sure if it was out of embarrassment or out of the physical exertion he put in trying to get his hand unstuck from the vending machine. She clears her throat, trying to cover the laugh that bubbled out of her mouth.

“So, uh,” She starts before kneeling down next to him and staring at the lip of the machine that was currently eating his hand. She looks up towards the inside of the machine and can see a candy bar right on the edge of falling out of its slot. “You didn’t want to machine to eat your money I take it?”

His cheeks redden further and he looks away from her and pulls on his hand once more.

“It’s stuck.” He says lamely while pulling even harder. He groans when it doesn’t budge and hits the machine once more. The noise echoes down the hallway and Rey can’t help but jump at the display of force.

“Beating it up won’t help.” She says and places her hand on his arm. His gaze shoots to her, going between her face and the hand on his arm. She rolls her eyes at him before pulling slightly. It doesn’t budge and she can’t help the sigh of frustration from leaving her mouth.

“Move your hand down back towards the opening.” She says and waits for him to start moving. His jaw tightens and she can tell that he wants to say some sort of snarky comment to her. But he doesn’t. He instead moves his hand as much as he can back down towards the flap of the machine.

When she pulls on his arm again, his hand comes out with a slight pop. It’s red and scratched up from the pull but otherwise intact. She brushes her hands together before standing up and leaning against the machine.

“See? Patience helps with these things.” She says and watches him stand, all the while rubbing at his sore hand. He doesn’t say anything to her as he turns around and speeds away from her.

“You’re welcome!” She shouts behind him before grumbling to herself.

“Insufferable prick.”

* * *

 

The next time she sees him, he’s in the same predicament. He’s kneeling next to the _same_ vending machine, the _same_ hand caught. She can’t help the small laugh that leaves her mouth when she approaches him.

“Haven’t learned have you?” She says before leaning down to help him get his hand unstuck. She looks into the vending machine to see how far he has screwed himself this time. His hand is a little higher than before and at a more awkward of an angle. She bites her lip at the image, not sure if she’ll be able to get him out in the same way as last time.

“Can you help?” He grunts out and pulls on his arm. She wants to tell him no, wants to walk away as a sort of punishment for him not thanking her from last time. But she knows his anger, knows what power he possesses and doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of it while she’s undercover.

So instead, she pulls on his arm again before telling him to try to move his hand. He does but it doesn’t budge or even inch closer to the flap at the bottom of the machine. She laughs then before reaching into the machine herself.

“Really got yourself stuck this time haven’t you?” His ears redden at her laughter and he looks away from her. He watches as she reaches up into the machine and gropes blindly for his hand. Their fingers brush and static runs through her.

Both of their hands twitch but neither move.

“Uh oh.” It leaves her mouth before she can even think. His head whips to her, his brows furrowed together.

“What do you mean ‘uh oh’?” He says, the anger very obvious in her voice. She laughs nervously and attempts to move her hand. It doesn’t budge.

“Well,” She begins before moving from kneeling to a sitting position. It hurts her hand and she can’t help the pained noises from leaving her mouth. “We’re gonna be here for a while.”

He groans before punching the machine once more. She winces again at the noise but tries to steel herself against the violence. She figures she’s going to be seeing him punch the poor machine more than once. It’s when he punches it for the tenth time does she finally say something.

“Can you stop?” She bites out and his eyes widen at her. She does her best to glare at him before continuing.

“Punching the thing isn’t going to solve this,” She says before turning her head away from his gaze. She scans the hallway for another worker, hoping that someone will come soon and get them out of their trap. “And I’m sick of seeing you do it.”

The annoyance and anger whip around him but he doesn’t say anything to her, only turns his head away from her. They sit in silence for a while, ignoring each other to the best of their ability. But his attitude is annoying and Rey knows that they’re going to be there for a while. It’s late in the evening and most people are in their bunks by now. So she opts to try and calm the beast. She turns towards him and reaches her free arm across her body, offering her hand to Kylo.

“My name’s Kira.” She says and waits for him to move. He turns his head back towards her, looking between her hand and her face. He slowly lifts his other hand up and grips her hand. His grip is firm but gentle and it surprises Rey in a way she doesn’t really understand.

“Matt,” He begins before removing his hand from hers and motioning towards the little tag on his uniform. “Radar Technician.”

She nods and they relapse into a comfortable silence. She counts the seconds in her head, documenting how long she would be stuck next to her enemy. He pulls on his arm every now and then, trying to see if the sweat that covers their hands is enough to help slide his hand out. It never is and he resigns to tapping his free fingers against his thigh.

“So,” She begins, breaking the silence between them. His gaze goes to hers immediately and it makes her uncomfortable to have his full attention. “When did you start here?”

“About two weeks ago,” He’s blunt and emotionless when he answers her. She thinks that he might be suspicious of her and she can’t help the roll of her eyes. He huffs out at that, annoyance whipping around him again. “What about you?”

“About four.” She says and the silence returns between them. She thinks that maybe she apologize about rolling her eyes but opts not to. He doesn’t deserve her apology.

“What did you do before?” She asks while pulling on her own arm. It doesn’t budge, much like Kylo’s and she groans. She can see a small smile creep onto Kylo’s features while he watches her struggle but he quickly replaces it with a frown.

“I was recruited straight from school.” He says and Rey can tell how much he rehearsed this answer. It comes out like how a droid would respond to an inquiry.

“Impressive.” She begins and snorts. He looks at her, his eyebrows furrowed and eyes showing his offense.

“It is impressive.”

“Oh, I’m not denying that. It’s just that,” She says and laughs again. “Someone as _impressive_ as you shouldn’t have their hand stuck in a vending machine.”

The laughter bubbles out of her when Kylo’s face darkens to a scarlet hue. Watching him squirm under his discomfort was totally worth getting her hand caught in the vending machine.

“So do you.” He whispers and her laughter grows even louder. At that, he begins smiling and chuckling. The smile across his face is a nice feature and it’s a shame that he doesn’t wear it more often. Rey tries to banish the thought from her mind.

Their conversation goes smoothly after that and there is rarely any silence between them. She tells him her made up life; about how her dad worked with technology and that’s why she was so good with it. She told him about her fake place of her childhood, told him about her fake childhood friends (which were based off of Finn and Poe now). He laughed with her at her fake stories.

They were brought out of their laughter by an angry coworker. The person stomped down the hallway, hollering about the time of day and the noise that they were making. It was only when the person saw how Rey and Kylo were did they begin laughing too. They gripped their sides before walking away to get help.

When they parted, Kylo thanked her for her help (or, well, attempted help)

* * *

 

She doesn’t see him for a while after that. She figures that while ‘Matt’ may work as a Radar Technician, Kylo Ren would be needed much more. He probably only uses it as a front for some odd reason. She doesn’t really question it and is pretty happy with not seeing him.

Kylo Ren, that is. She kinda misses ‘Matt’.

She shakes her head at the thought while she walks down the hallway towards her quarters. It was a late night again and she can’t wait to crawl into her stiff cot and fall asleep. It would probably be the only night that the hard bed would be comfortable.

When she rounds the corner, she sees him.

He’s knelt next to the vending machine but instead of beating up the poor machine or trying to pull his hand out, he’s looking down either side of the hallway. When he sees her, his eyes light up and he waves for her. She rolls her eyes slightly but the smile on her face betrays her actual feelings.

She walks slowly up to him before kneeling down next to him. He has his hand impressively shoved up the machine and she has no idea how he managed to do it. He clears his throat and Rey meets his gaze.

“Impressive, right?” He whispers, a small smile playing on his lips. She laughs and sits down next to him. She grips his arm and attempts to pull his hand out. She knows that the move won’t work with how far he has his hand in the machine, but she figures its better than trying to put her hand up the machine. It doesn’t budge and Rey laughs.

“Very, Matt.” She says and she moves to get up. His eyes widen and he tries to pull himself away from the machine.

“Wait, wait, where are you going?” He says and she can hear the panic in his voice.

“I’m just going to go get a tool.” She answers but stops her attempt of getting up. She watches the red bloom across his cheeks and wonders what he’s playing at.

“I, uh, I think you could get it out with your hand this time.” His voice is so small when he says it. She looks between how far his hand is in the machine and back to ‘Matt’. She wants to snort, tell him that he’s crazy for thinking such a thing. But hope flickers across his face and it suddenly makes so much sense.

He _wants_ Rey to get her hand stuck again.

A laugh wants to leave her throat but she swallows it down. She’d be an idiot to indulge his want. She should just go and get the tool and get him out. She should just leave him there to suffer. She should just continue on with her mission and pretend that she never saw him.

But this could be the chance she needed. Maybe she could get information out of Kylo Ren. She hadn’t gotten much during her time aboard the _Finalizer_ except for rumors and the format of the ship. Maybe she could get him to talk to her about plans that the First Order may have.

So she shoved her hand into the machine.

His eyes are so bright that she wonder if he really is someone who uses the Dark Side of the Force. His laughing is contagious and Rey can feel the laughter bubbling from her chest before she hears it.

“Oops.”

She tells him more stories again about her fake life. He seems to enjoy those the most. He leans in at suspenseful parts and laughs at the humorous ones. His features fall when she tells him something sad about the loneliness she felt even with her family. It’s partially true and she doesn’t feel so bad for lying to him. She might not have had the fake family but the loneliness was never something fake.

When she runs out of stories about her fake life, he asks her about her personal relationships. She tells him about her two best friends and how they were separated at the moment. It’s another partial truth; Poe is somewhere on the ship but they haven’t been able to meet out of fear of suspicion. But Finn was away from them and it hurt her heart ever so slightly. She missed her friend and couldn’t wait to see him again.

He clears his throat and it brings Rey out of her monologue about her missed friend. She looks to meet his gaze but he keeps avoiding hers, looking anywhere but her face.

“So,” He begins and his voice is so small. She leans forward ever so slightly to hear him better. She can almost feel the heat radiating off of his face and ears and she wonders what he’s so embarrassed about. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

She wants to laugh and cry all in the same instance. Instead, her face only heats up and she moves away from him as fast as she can. It’s not far since her hand is still stuck in the machine. He stammers, trying to make up an excuse for asking if she had one.

“No, no I don’t.” She laughs and the relief flashes across his face. She wants to tell him about how he’ll never have a chance with her. She wants to tell him that he needs to keep dreaming and to leave her alone. But she _likes_ ‘Matt’. He’s sweet and everything that Kylo isn’t. She could tell Kylo that he should keep dreaming, that he’ll never have a chance with her but she can’t bring herself to tell ‘Matt’ it.

Their conversation lapses into silence and both try to avoid eye contact. She wonders what he’s thinking about but doesn’t bring herself to ask about it. She wants to break the awkward silence, wants to stop her heart from beating so fast. So, she thinks of the one topic that would make her blood run cold.

“What do you think about Kylo Ren?” She asks and his gaze snaps to hers.

“I think he’s a great leader,” He begins and his features show no emotion. There is only a slight tinge of red on his pinks from the previous conversation. She wonders how he could switch from being someone with so much emotion to someone with so little so quickly. “And that he’s trying to do what’s best for the galaxy.”

She wants to snort but doesn’t do anything of the sort. She can’t give away what she truly feels about him right now, not without blowing any sort of cover that she had. So she only nods in agreement and they lapse back into the silence.

“I think you’d like him.”

“E-Excuse me?” She stammers out and his eyes are so full of hope it hurts her heart. They’re so wonderful filled with the hope, so beautiful and dark and Rey wants to slap herself for thinking such a thing.

“I think you’d like him.” He repeats and the blush returns to his cheeks again. “He’s really strong and really smooth with the ladies.” He looks away from her and his fingers nervously twitch. “And he’s ripped.”

The heat swells on her face again and her free hand comes up to play with her hair. It’s braided so there isn’t much she can really do except for pull on it. She pulls on the braid, running her fingers along the bumps.

“I-I’m not really into smooth talking guys,” She begins and she can feel Kylo’s gaze bore into her. She refuses to meet his eye though, not wanting him to see just how embarrassed she is over his suggestion. “a-and the whole ‘Knights of Ren’ thing is kind of intimidating.” She wants to smack herself upside the head for all her stammering. There is no reason why she should be so nervous. It wasn’t like she _felt_ anything for Kylo Ren.

“Oh.” He breathes out and looks away from her. He sounded so crushed and the guilt wraps around her heart. She touches his arm and her heart leaps into her throat.

“N-Not that I wouldn’t want to get to know him,” This time she does curse at herself. This time she does wince at her own suggestion and Kylo seems hurt again. “It’s just that I-I’m nobody special.”

“He’d think you’re special.”

The sweetness of it all makes her want to scream. This isn’t _how_ he was supposed to be. He was _supposed_ to be cold, harsh, and someone that just screamed ‘I’m going to murder you the next chance I get’. He wasn’t supposed to make her heart melt and her heart pulse madly.

“I-I..”

“I could have you guys meet.” ‘Matt’ blurts out, interrupting her stammering. Her blood runs cold and panic grips hold of her.

“T..That won’t be necessary, Matt.” She says and her face grows even hotter.

“He’d like you.” He says and it’s a sort of accusation that Rey doesn’t understand. He’s confused why she keeps refusing and Rey has no idea how throw him off of the idea of ‘Kylo’ meeting ‘Kira’.

“I like someone else!” She blurts and her hand flies up towards her mouth. This was not what she had in mind but if this throws him off the idea of meeting, than maybe it’s for the best.

The air around them seems to freeze around them and fear grips her tightly again. His jaw is tight and his eyebrows are furrowed together.

“You do?” It’s an accusation and Rey feels like she’s choking. His jealousy is palpable and Rey wants to laugh at it. He shouldn’t be _jealous_ of anyone. He shouldn’t be angry that she ‘liked’ someone else. If he knew, if he knew who she was than he wouldn’t be angry. He wouldn’t be jealous. But here she was now, with an angry Kylo Ren sitting next to her.

She could tell that he wanted her to tell him who this other person was. She knew that if she named anyone off the ship that something terrible would happen to them. She knew that there was only one way should could get out of this predicament.

She surges forward and their lips meet. His lips are soft and slightly chapped against hers and she likes the way they feel. But she scrambles backwards as quickly as she had surged forward. Both of their faces turn a deeper shade than either thought possible. His mouth opens and closes for a moment, his gaze hot on her lips. She bites her bottom lip before whispering.

“I like you, Matt.”

He tries to say something but everything comes out as a stammer or too quiet for her to hear. He looks away from her and his fingers twitch again.

“I really think you should meet Kylo Ren.”

It breaks any sort of spell that he had over her. She groans and throws her free hand up into the air.

“I like _you_ , Matt. I don’t want to meet Kylo Ren!”

He begins stammering again when another frustrated coworker runs down the hallway. He shouts at Rey to keep her voice down before seeing the position of the two ‘technicians’. The man laughs and tells the two that he’ll be right back. With her savior gone, the silence between ‘Matt’ and ‘Kira’ crushes her.

Electricity shoots through her body and she searches for where their bodies are touching. His hand is holding hers in the vending machine and his face is turned away from her. A small smile crosses over her features and she laces her fingers within his.

Maybe she hated Kylo Ren. Maybe she would have to kill him. Maybe should could save him.

But it didn’t matter. She would indulge the idea of ‘Matt’ for the rest of her stay on the _Finalizer._

“Can you stop getting your hand caught in the vending machine now?”

**Author's Note:**

> So I've wanted to write a 'Matt' fic for a while now and my sister sent me some prompts she found on tumblr. I saw the "tried to get the candy bar that didn’t drop out of the vending machine and now my hand is stuck can u help me out" prompt and thought of this wonderful oneshot. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> If you want to see more; make sure to subscribe to the series 'You, Me, and the Lie Between Us'. Each new part of this will be posted as a oneshot and will be added to the series! That way you can see whenever a new fic of this little universe is posted :)
> 
>  
> 
> [Come chat with me on tumblr!](http://helpilikereylo.tumblr.com/)


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